The Wuzzles
Disney's The Wuzzles was an animated television series created for Saturday morning television, and was first broadcast on September 14, 1985 on CBS. An idea of Michael Eisner for his new Disney television animation studio. The premise is that the main characters are hybrids of two different animals.[2] The original thirteen episodes ran on CBS for their first run. [3] With only 13 episodes of The Wuzzles, it was one of the shortest running animated series produced by Disney.[4] One season later, Wuzzles moved to ABC (which was eventually sold to Disney) for reruns, and disappeared from network television after that. Premise The Wuzzles features a variety of short, rounded animal characters (each called a Wuzzle, which means to mix up). Each is a roughly even, and colorful, mix of two different animal species (as the theme song mentions, "livin' with a split personality"), and all the characters sport wings on their backs, although only Bumblelion and Butterbear are seemingly capable of flight. All of the Wuzzles live on the Isle of Wuz. Double species are not limited to the Wuzzles themselves. From the appleberries they eat to the telephonograph in the home, or a luxury home called a castlescraper, nearly everything on Wuz is mixed together in the same way the Wuzzles are. The characters in the show were marketed extensively. The characters were featured in children's books, as poseable figures and plush toys (similar to Care Bears), and in a board game. Disney premiered two animated series on the same day, The Wuzzles and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, but on different networks. The Wuzzles was on CBS, and The Gummi Bears was on NBC. Although The Gummi Bears was a successful series, The Wuzzles was not, at least in the US. However, it does have a fan base today. It was a much bigger success in the United Kingdom where the pilot episode aired as a theatrical featurette in 1986. In the United Kingdom, The Wuzzles and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears were originally screened on the same channel (ITV) in 1985/1986, therefore both series enjoyed high popularity, and The Wuzzles was also repeated on the Children's BBC (now called CBBC) in 1987. Reruns of the show were aired on both The Disney Channel and Toon Disney. Lead vocal on the theme song for The Wuzzles is performed by songwriter Stephen Geyer. Characters *'Bumblelion' (voiced by Brian Cummings): Half bumblebee and half lion, Bumblelion is mostly lion in appearance. He is a short, squat orange furred creature with a pink mane, fuzzy antennae, a lion's tail, small insect wings, and horizontal brown stripes up his tummy. He lives in a beehive, likes sports, is courageous, and has a crush on Butterbear. He is said to be the sort who "rushes in where angels fear to tread". He and Eleroo are best friends. *'Butterbear' (voiced by Kathleen Helppie): Half bear and half butterfly, Butterbear is mostly bear in appearance. She has yellow fur with a white tummy, larger wings than the other Wuzzles, and short antennae with flowers on their ends. She is a keen gardener who is gentle and patient despite the crazy adventures of her friends. *'Eleroo' (voiced by Henry Gibson): Half elephant and half kangaroo. One of the larger Wuzzles, Eleroo is purple, with the body shape and tail of a kangaroo and an elephant's trunk and ears. He has a horizontally striped pouch (despite the fact that pouches are found only on female kangaroos). Eleroo has trouble remembering what he stores in his pouch. He is sweet, but accident/disaster prone. He and Bumblelion are best friends. *'Moosel' (voiced by Bill Scott): Half moose and half seal. Moosel is a small Wuzzle. He has antlers and flippers. Moosel has a vivid imagination, which makes him believe in monsters. He and Rhinokey are best friends. *'Hoppopotamus' (voiced by Jo Anne Worley): Half rabbit, half hippopotamus. She is called Hoppo by her friends. Hoppo is a Wuzzle who is a hippopotamus with a rabbit's ears, buck teeth and a fluffy tail. She has blue fur with a purple tummy, and she loves to sing and act. Hoppo is a pushy demanding diva, but she can be sweet. However, when toughness is called for (particularly in dealing with the regular villain, Crocosaur), she is the toughest Wuzzle of all. Hoppo has a crush on Bumblelion, but Bumblelion has his heart set on Butterbear. *'Rhinokey' (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer): Half rhinoceros and half monkey. Rhinokey is a Wuzzle who has a rhino-like snout with a horizontal-stripped horn, pink fur, and rhino-like legs. He is in a posture that is very much like that of a monkey's. Rhinokey is a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky prankster. He loves to play practical jokes. He can be obnoxious, but he loves his friends. Rhinokey is Moosel's best friend. *'Tycoon' (voiced by Gregg Berger): Half Tiger and half Raccoon. Tycoon is the rich kid of Wuz. He owns a money tree. He shows the other Wuzzles that he got his wealth from smart investing and saving his money, and teaches the Wuzzles about fiscal responsibility. *'Crocosaur' (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer): Half crocodile, half dinosaur, and the main villain of the show. Crocosaur is bad-tempered, lazy, vile, ignorant, a bully, and does anything to get what he wants. He always wants the best of what the Wuzzles have, but does not want to apply the effort to acquire it himself. **'Brat' (voiced by Bill Scott): Half wild boar, half dragon, and Crocosaur's chief sidekick. Brat sputters, raspberries, cries, laughs, yells, growls, and grunts in his speech, but Crocosaur understands what he is saying. Like Crocosaur, he is very lazy and has a strong dislike towards the Wuzzles coupled with a desire to have the best of what they have without applying any effort towards acquiring it. As his name implies, Brat is very bad tempered and is often shown throwing tantrums when he does not get his own way. He is also greatly lacking in intelligence, and his incompetence often sees himself and Crocosaur falling victim to their own devices, which in turn occasionally sees the two of them falling out. **'Frizard' (voiced by Brian Cummings): Half frog, half lizard, and Crocosaur's other sidekick. Frizard is not particularly intelligent, but he means well and is more amiable in his manner than either Crocosaur or Brat, and relatively more tolerant of the Wuzzles, but nevertheless very loyal to Crocosaur; on occasions where Crocosaur and Brat fall out, it is often left to Frizard to try and patch things up between them. His character essentially emphasizes tolerance of others who one is not particularly close to, while staying loyal to one's friends regardless of whether their plans are morally right or not. Frizard does not appear in every episode, only making sporadic appearances throughout the series.